My introduction to computers started with a DEC VT220 my dad brought home from work. I remember being fascinated by the glowing green type on the screen and wanted to understand how this strange machine worked. My dad showed me how he created documents in EMACS and sent email. He also showed me some basic commands on how to navigate around the VAX mainframe. I was completely hooked. When my dad wasn’t working I would read the manual and try typing different commands into the terminal to see what would happen. This was my first foray into the world of hacking…
A few years later dad bought us a Commodore Vic/20. The Vic/20 served as our gaming console and more importantly, as a BASIC programming platform. In the back of the Vic/20 manual was sample code for creating simple games and applications. I would spend hours typing in the programs just to see what would happen. I also started reading Compute Magazine because it was an additional source of more code and programs to play with. I started to become obsessed with this magic box where I could manipulate information and things on the TV. I needed to know more about how this magic box worked so I started to learn about electronics too. I would read any technical journal on computers and electronics I could obtain from the library. I didn’t comprehend most of it, but slowly I would start to understand terms and ideas. BYTE Magazine became my favorite source of information on computers and I was fascinated by all the theories, ideas and breakthroughs in technology. At the same time, TV shows and movies such as “Star Trek: The Next Generation” and “Short Circuit” fueled my imagination of where computing technology could go. The holy grail for me became AI (Artificial Intelligence) and robotics.
Radio Shack had become my favorite store. I loved flipping through the Radio Shack catalog and looking at electronic parts. I could now read schematic diagrams and was playing with simple circuits. Since I was still a kid with no money, I would scavenger capacitors, resistors, transistors and motors from toys, appliances and anywhere else I could find parts. Electronic sensors also fascinated me. Any kind of device that could detect, or be triggered by - heat, sound, light, wind, was like gold to me. Most of these sensors were geared towards alarm systems so as a small project I decided to build an electronic security system for my room that connected to the Commodore Vic/20 through the joystick port (I used the schematic diagram in the computer manual to figure out how to interface it with the security devices). The door magnetic switches, infrared tripwire beam, infrared motion detector and pressure sensor where all monitored with a custom program I wrote for the Commodore Vic/20 that would sound a siren and tell me which sensor had been tripped. That system was my pride and joy.
Everyone was now talking about college even though graduation still seemed so far away. I already had it figured out though. I was going to MIT to study AI and engineering then work in the MIT Media Lab.
(to be continued…)